I am here to help each of you succeed in this class and in your lives as students, citizens, and employees. To accomplish this, I will do all I can to teach you the skills and knowledge you need to communicate effectively to all people, in different situations, for a range of reasons, using not just words but images, sound, and other media. But I also want you to leave this class, this school, this year having engaged in rich discussions about important ideas with yourself, your classmates, and the authors we read. Our success in this class is interdependent: We must work together to obtain the success we cannot achieve on our own.

To help you reach these goals, I encourage you to contact me when you need help at jburke@englishcompanion.com  or on my cell phone (415.823.0449), so long as the question is related to the work at hand and not a grade on an assignment or your standing in the class.